I’ll admit it. There was a time when I was an avid viewer of soap operas (Days of Our Lives, to be precise). Even though I have lost interest in soap operas in recent years, there is a part of me that still holds a special fondness for those once-popular daytime dramas. The decline of the soap opera is a topic which doesn’t seem to get much attention, but I think it speaks volumes about modern society.
Soap operas have been around since the days of the old-time radio shows and peaked in popularity in the 1960s and 1970s. Ratings were high for many soaps right into the 80s, but as more and more women abandoned the stay-at-home lifestyle, viewership has declined steadily. In recent years, many of the most successful soap operas in television history have bit the dust. “Guiding Light”, which can trace its roots back to 1937, was canceled in 2009. “As the World Turns”, which first aired in 1956, ended its run in 2010. “All My Children” and “One Life to Live” limped their way to 2011 before cancellation reared its ugly head.
Today, the three major networks are home to the four remaining soap operas: “Days of Our Lives”, “General Hospital”, “The Young and the Restless” and “The Bold and the Beautiful”. This number is a drastic departure from the Golden Era of American soaps: There were 19 different soap operas on television in 1970.
In the opinion of many, the reason why soap operas are about to go the way of the covered wagon is because of America’s love affair with reality television. Why watch an overly-dramatized depiction of marital infidelity when we can see it played out in real-life on a reality show? Why tune into a soap in order to observe a love triangle ending in murder when we can simply watch Nancy Grace as she scowls into the camera on the faux-news channel HLN?
Once upon the time, the storylines of soap operas seemed outlandish and unbelievable. A middle-aged housewife from Ashtabula, happily married for thirty years, would tune into “All my Children” and stare at the screen in total fascination as she watched a portrayal of a man cheating on his wife. In her world, such behavior would seem impossible. Today, we tune into any one of the numerous reality TV shows and watch adultery, violence, and lust without blinking an eye.
Perhaps we as a society have devolved to such low-life standards that it would take a live criminal execution to gain our viewing attention. Maybe we’ve become a society of cheaters and wife-beaters and schemers, and these types of behaviors seem par for the course. Today, our everyday lives seem to resemble the once outrageous soap opera storylines of yesteryear.
No, the decline of the soap opera has nothing to do with our changing tastes or changing trends in television viewing. It has to do with a fundamental change in ourselves, and this decline should, in some small capacity, serve as a wake-up call for all of us who live on the fringes and outskirts of good taste and human decency. When our lives are filled with so much debauchery and dysfunction that it makes the actions of a soap opera character appear tame by comparison, then maybe we’ve crossed a line from which there is no return. In a few short generations we’ve gone from Mayberry to Sodom, from Port Charles to Gomorrah. And that is why we should pay attention to the rise and fall of the soap opera.